Isha Koppikar shares casting couch nightmare at 18
Bollywood actress Isha Koppikar opens up about her casting couch experiences, shedding light on the industry's dark side from her early career days.
Hours after ace choreographer Saroj Khan made a bizarre statement on casting couch and later apologized, Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury on Tuesday said that the casting couch culture was not just restricted to the film industry and Parliament too was not immune to it phenomenon.
“It’s not just in the film industry. It happens everywhere and is the bitter truth. Don’t imagine that Parliament or other workplaces are immune to it,” Chowdhury said. She also gave a call to “stand up and say Me Too”.
Saroj Khan had said that casting couch culture was a way of “livelihood” in the film industry and that it was an “age-old” practice. She asserted that it happens in every field and “why the entertainment industry alone should be targeted”. “Tum film industry ke peeche kyun pade ho? Woh kam se kam roti toh deti hai. Rape karke chhor toh nahi deti. (Why are you targeting the film industry? At least, it gives people livelihood. It doesn’t abandon after rape),” the three-time National Award-winning choreographer was heard saying in a video.
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This is not the first time that Chowdhury has raked up the issue of discrimination of women lawmakers in Parliament. She had urged the ruling dispensation for early passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill.
Earlier this year, while replying to a debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address in the Rajya Sabha, Modi had claimed the concept of Aadhaar was mooted in 1998 by the then home minister LK Advani, who spoke about a universally used national identity card.
As Modi sought to shear the previous Congress government of the credit for Aadhaar, Chowdhury burst into a guffaw, drawing disapproval of Chairman Naidu.
“If you have some problem, go to a doctor, please,” an irritated Naidu told Chowdhury.
Smiling broadly, Modi requested Naidu not to restrain the Congress MP.
“It is for the first time after the Ramayana serial that we are having the good fortune of hearing such laughter today,” Modi said without elaborating, but apparently hinting at a negative character in the serial.
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